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Tri-Valley's Chevron to spend $5.4 billion on Caspian pipeline

'Important achievement' made possible with support of Russia and Kazakhstan, chairman says

by
Jessica Lipsky

Tri-Valley-based Chevron Corporation said Tuesday that its shareholders and the governing bodies of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) have unanimously approved a $5.4 billion expansion of the Caspian pipeline.

The capacity of the 900-mile pipeline, which carries crude oil from Western Kazakhstan to a terminal in the Black Sea, will increase to 1.4 million barrels per day from its current capacity of 730,000 barrels per day.

"This important achievement was made possible by the leadership and support of the governments of Russia and Kazakhstan," said Chevron Chairman and CEO John Watson. "Chevron appreciates the valuable contributions of our partners, Transneft and KazMunaiGaz, toward sanctioning of the CPC expansion project."

The project will be implemented in three phases with capacity increasing progressively from 2012 to 2015. Chevron will refurbish five existing pump station, add 10 new stations and replace a 55-mile section of the line.

Additionally, six new storage tanks and a third offshore mooring point at the Black Sea terminal will need to be replacd six miles north of the Port of Novorossiysk

According to a release, the expansion of the CPC pipeline is a critical step forward to enabling the Tengiz expansion, one of the world's largest oil fields with estimated recoverable reserves of 6 billion to 9 billion barrels. CPC will carry Tengiz crude oil and also transport oil from other Kazakh and Russian fields.